One Lion lauds another

The British

& Irish Lions

Tour to New Zealand 2017

One Lion lauds another

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll has praised a fellow triple Lions tourist in the wake of his team's enthralling draw with Australia on Sunday.

Lions legend O'Driscoll crossed for a last-minute converted try against the Wallabies at Croke Park to ensure Ireland remain unbeaten in 2009.

But despite his own heroics on his 100th international appearance, O'Driscoll was quick to credit an under-fire Ronan O'Gara.

The Munster fly-half was vilified for his costly mistake in the Lions' second Test defeat to South Africa in June and there have since been calls for him to be replaced as his country's first-choice fly-half.

But O'Driscoll, who has played alongside O'Gara with the Lions in 2001, 2005 and 2009 and with Ireland for close to 10 years, believes his team-mate still has plenty to offer on the world stage.

"I thought Ronan was really good," said O'Driscoll, despite a wayward pass from O'Gara gifting the Australians an early try.

"He controlled the game very well and passed very well.

"That first pass was a fraction too deep but we'll take 50-50 blame for that. His kicking was good and he read things well.

"It was a big performance - not that any of his team-mates who have played with him a lot of time felt he needed it.

"He's involved in a team that's top of their Heineken Cup group and three points off the lead in the Magners League yet people are giving a little about him. That's rough."

As for the Irish performance as a whole, O'Driscoll has mixed emotions.

The 30-year-old was delighted with the character his side showed to comeback from 10-6 and 20-13 down but admitted that a draw could and possibly should have been a victory for this year's Grand Slam winners.

"I'm pleased we were rewarded for showing the bottle to stick with them until the death and grind out a draw," added O'Driscoll.

"We hung on when things weren't going brilliantly for us and that is the mark of a good side.

"We gifted them an early try and had to battle our way back into the game. We had to play catch-up and that makes it difficult against a good side like Australia.

"We struggled in the ruck area and we will have to look at that ahead of the Fiji game but given that we hadn't played together for six months, it's difficult to get going again and just pick up where we left off.

"We left a lot of good opportunities out there, and big improvements can be made, but there were pleasing aspects from the game. We will get better with each game that we play."